Fred Fearnot's New Ranch Read online

  FRED FEARNOT'S NEW RANCH

  and

  How He and Terry Managed It

  by

  HAL STANDISH

  CHAPTER I.

  FEARNOT AND OLCOTT AT FREEDONIA.

  Fearnot and Olcott remained in Wall Street after the great excitementoccasioned, by Fred's sudden change of front, when he turned from a bullto a bear in the market, quietly waiting for another chance to make adeal.

  All the brokers in the Street had nothing else to talk about for thetime being but that singular event, and it became well known that thebrokers who had been attempting to crush him the second time narrowlyescaped being themselves completely ruined.

  Although Fred and Terry didn't reap the benefit of the change as much asthey expected, they made a neat little sum, and Broker Bellamy, who hadbeen Fred's most persistent enemy, was so badly crippled that manybrokers thought he was completely ruined.

  His two nephews, thinking that Fred had been too harsh with their uncle,hired a couple of thugs to give him a good beating, but the news oftheir intention having reached Fred's ears, Terry kept inside thetypewriter's room an hour after the close of business for some time.

  One afternoon the thugs entered the room and the leader fell into Fred'sterrible grip, and he squeezed his ribs so fiercely that several of themwere broken. The wounded slugger's pal was roundly thrashed, too, byTerry, who couldn't resist the temptation to take a hand in it, but hewas permitted to take his friend out to the hospital.

  The building was so nearly deserted at the time that the news did notget out.

  The two young nephews of Broker Bellamy on learning of the failure oftheir hired assassins, immediately sailed from New York for partsunknown, and all Wall Street became interested in the question of whathad become of them, where they had gone and why they had left the citybetween sunset and sunrise.

  Fred and Terry believed that they knew just why they had gone away, but,of course, had no idea where they had gone.

  Broker Bellamy, who was very fond of his two stalwart nephews, intimatedthat he believed that Fred and Terry knew what had become of them, and,from that, the gossips began saying that the old broker had charged Fredand Terry with making way with his two nephews. At first Fred and Terrylaughed at it, and so did all Wall Street. Nobody believed it excepttheir enemies, who were willing to believe anything to their discredit.

  Terry finally called up Broker Bellamy and took him to task for startingsuch a report that they had had some hand in making way with hisnephews, but the old man, of course, denied the charge, whereupon Terrytold him of the hired sluggers who had attacked Fred in his office, andhow their attack had proved an absolute failure.

  One of the sluggers had died from being shot by a crook after makingconfession to one of the surgeons that he had been hired by the twoBellamy boys, and that therefore he ought to understand why his nephewshad absconded from the city.

  The old fellow was dumfounded, and it was probably true when he deniedthat he knew anything about the attack on Fearnot, and so he refused tomake any retraction whatever.

  Then Terry wrote an account of the whole incident and had it publishedin one of the big dailies. This was a shock to the entire city.

  Terry obtained an affidavit from one of the surgeons who had treated thewounded man in the hospital and one also from the other thug who hadwitnessed and taken part in the attack corroborating the charge thatTerry had made.

  It came very near ruining the old broker, who already had many enemiesin the Street, and it gradually forced him to retire.

  After that Fred and Terry took part in several more little deals, someof which panned out pretty well, while others profited them little ornothing; but in the aggregate they had gathered in a pretty good sumduring the season, and they decided that they were pretty well paid fortheir return to Wall Street; so they finally decided to go back downinto Texas to look after their new ranch and try to add another thousandhead of cattle to their herd.

  They wrote Jack that they were going to return south, and as soon asJack received their letter he promptly wired back to them to stay thereuntil he joined them, as he intended to come up after his mother and tomarry Katy Malone, who was still working in the office with LouiseCrane.

  "Great Scott, Terry!" said Fred. "Jack has finished his house by thistime, and now he is in a hurry to get his mother and sweetheart downthere with him."

  "Well, I don't blame him, Fred. Katy is a sweet girl and dead in lovewith him, while his mother wants her along as a companion."

  "Very true; but, Terry, I fear that he is making a mistake."

  "Don't say anything about that, Fred," advised Terry, "for it would hurtboth his and her feelings, and probably his mother's. I don't see how itis possible that his house can be finished ready for occupancy in such ashort time."

  "Neither do I, and I'm going to wire to him and ask him if the house isfinished, and if it isn't I'll just advise him to postpone his tripNorth until it is." So he wired to Crabtree, and the dispatch was sentdown the road by the operator to him.

  Jack promptly answered the question by saying that the house was not yetfinished, and would not be for several months yet, but that his motherand Katy could find comfortable quarters in one of the other houses.

  Fred immediately wired back:

  "Take my advice, Jack, and wait until the house is finished andfurnished."

  The next morning he received a reply from Jack, saying:

  "All right, sir, I'll wait."

  "Terry, that boy is no fool," Fred remarked, as he showed him thedispatch.

  "Now, Terry," said Fred, "let's see if we can't persuade Evelyn and Maryto go back with us down there. We can keep them at the hotel inCrabtree, supply them with a carriage and a pair of horses, and you knowit is not absolutely necessary for us to live out on the ranch entirelyyet. Then, too, we are well enough supplied with money now to entertainthem in good style, as well as to add another thousand head of cattle toour herd."

  "Fred, that would suit you all right, for I have no doubt but thatEvelyn would be glad to go, but I am afraid that Mrs. Hamilton willrefuse to give her consent to Mary's going out there, and I am sure,too, that she will never consent to our marriage if I intend to bringher down here to live. She seems to have a holy horror of Texas; forthat state has the name, you know, all over this part of the country asbeing a place for which all law-breakers leave when the sheriff getsafter them. We had that idea, too, until we stayed down there amongthem for a few months; but there are no better people in the world, onan average, than we have found the citizens of Texas to be."

  "Well, Terry, let's take a run up to Fredonia and have a talk with thegirls and their mothers. We may be able to persuade Mrs. Hamilton to ourway of thinking." So a few days later they took the train up toFredonia, without having notified the girls of their intention of doingso.

  It so happened that on that very day Evelyn and Mary took a ride over onMain street, and when they had finished their little shopping Evelynsuggested that they drive up to the depot and see the train pass.

  They did so, and were never more surprised in their lives than when theysaw Fred and Terry emerge from the cars.

  "Oh, Mary!" exclaimed Evelyn, "there are Fred and brother!"

  "Where? Where?" Mary questioned.

  "Why, don't you see them coming there with their valises in theirhands?" and the two girls threw their arms around each other's necks andkissed each other in their great joy at seeing their sweethearts.

  Fred and Terry saw the carriage and at once left the station platformand started toward it.

  Evelyn sprang out of the carriage, ran to Terry, threw her arms aroundhis neck and kissed him only as a loving sister can.

  Fred droppe
d his valise, and, catching her in his arms, kissed her onboth cheeks, while probably a score of spectators stood looking on; butthen neither of them cared for that, for every man, woman and child inFredonia knew of their engagement.

  "Dear," said Fred, "how did you know that we were coming up?"

  "Fred, I really can't say. Mary and I were down on Main street shopping.Suddenly the thought of you and brother came into my head and my heartsuggested that we come up here, although both of us were ignorant thatyou boys were coming up on that train."

  "Well, bless that dear heart," said Fred, as he assisted her into thecarriage.

  Of course, the Olcott and Hamilton families were greatly surprised.

  Fred explained to Evelyn that he and Terry had succeeded in their dealsdown in Wall Street and had almost recovered from their losses caused byfailure of the Texas bank, and that they were thinking of